Archive for the 'Rooney' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Dozens of new shows are going on sale this weekend but a majority of the biggest ones were already announced weeks ago. So let's start with a few that are brand spankin' new.

Thought Kings of Leon's Coachella set would be the quartet's last appearance for a while? Think again. They still have their fifth album (Come Around Sundown) to promote, which they will do via a summer tour that launches in the South in July and reaches Southern California right around Labor Day. With Band of Horses as supporting act, the Kings will play Sept. 4 at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista and Sept. 8 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. Check back for on-sale info.

Meanwhile, Maroon 5 and Train have teamed for a co-headlining outing that kicks off July 22 at Cricket and stops July 25 at the Hollywood Bowl. Gavin DeGraw will open. Tickets for the Chula Vista show, $32-$92.50, are on sale Saturday at 10 a.m., while the Bowl gig, $25.50-$105.50, goes on sale Monday at 10 a.m.

And though we've been lax in reporting this -- put it down to post-Coachella fatigue -- by now you've likely heard that Rage Against the Machine will once more resurface to play somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area on July 30, in a bill also including Muse and Rise Against. More details when we know 'em.

It's been a year since the grunge gods of Soundgarden -- Chris Cornell (pictured, his hair returning to old ways), Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd -- reunited for a show at Seattle's Showbox, followed by two gigs in Chicago last August, including a headlining turn at Lollapalooza, where the pic was taken.

Now, as the band continues to work on its first album since 1996's Down on the Upside, it has announced plans to tour this summer. The first few dates trickled out this week, including the band's first Southern California appearance, July 22 at the Forum in Inglewood. Tickets, $39.50-$69.50, go on sale Saturday, April 23, at 10 a.m.

Very exciting news: As part of its Off Center Series, the recently rechristened Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa is once again adding a handful of indie-band bills to the Samueli Theater's calendar, starting with a great teaming on May 24 -- recent Coachella act Menomena with Kiev, one of O.C.'s most promising outfits. Tickets, $20 for general admission or $40 for VIP loft access, go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. at the Center's box office, online at SCFTA.org, or call 714-556-2787.

Speaking of people who just played Coachella, rap star Wiz Khalifa, who had one of publishbooknow.net the best sets of the fest, will headline Santa Barbara Bowl on June 23, with Big Sean and Chevy Woods opening, $29-$39, on sale Friday at 4 p.m. Interesting: Pollstar currently lists him playing June 25 at Honda Center, which is at least three times as large as the SB Bowl -- so that must be when the next Powerhouse is, yes?

More than a decade ago, before the band dropped the 'Ed' from its recognizable band moniker (taken from the one Hollywood's ultimate teen films, Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Rooney was already a shoo-in success behind the Orange Curtain.

With its Beach-Boys-meets-Weezer pop-rock sound, the band appealed locally to an older crowd clinging to surf-rock nostalgia, while garnering a large percentage of ticket and record sales from the hopelessly enamored gaggles of (mostly) under-18 gals that, to this day, continue to gather at the SoCal rockers' every gig.

The crowd occupying the Mouse House for Rooney's Thursday night show - the second tour stop following the band's June 8 release of its third studio album, Eureka- was of a similar make-up: a few adults watching with half-interested expressions from behind the safety of the bar while their tweens intermittently emitted screamss or their own high-pitched versions of the songs being performed on stage.

Yet, unlike the shows of their past - where long flowing hair, suggestively unbuttoned shirts, and slap-happy synth hooks reigned supreme - this performance revealed Rooney's members very blatantly attempting to abandon their power-pop pedestal in favor of a more mature, rock-driven persona.

While the guys' former band broke barriers by introducing emo kids to vaudevillian-tinged dance-punk, these days Ross seems content in mining the past while decrying what he sees as a lack of quality on today's airwaves.

“We're trying to be the band that we aren't hearing on the radio right now,” he says “It's sort of like a crusade. I think that, in a broader sense, we just want to play stuff that sounds real. Everything is so computerized these days and it's all edited and everything. Everything sounds so perfect, and we just want to be a band that sounds like a band.”

“A band that sounds like a band” might be the best way to describe the primitive, honest tunes Ross & Co. -- including bassist Andy Soukal, drummer Nick Murray and keyboardist Nick White -- have penned for their debut, Take a Vacation!, which arrived last week.

Jack White, Alison Mosshart and the rest of the Dead Weather -- whose second album, Sea of Cowards, arrives next week -- will play the refurbished landmark on July 21. Meanwhile, the Black Keys -- the duo of guitarist Dan Auerbach (pictured) and drummer Patrick Carney, whose soul-infused sixth album, Brothers (recorded at Alabama's famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studio), drops on May 18 -- will take over the Palladium on Sept. 27.

The Dead Weather gig goes on sale Friday at 10 a.m., $37.50. Tickets for the Black Keys show, $30, become available Friday at noon.

After packing 'em in last year at Staples Center, the Dominican-American bachata quartet Aventura will return June 23 to likely sell out Honda Center in Anaheim. Tickets, $46.50-$116.50, are on sale now.

Note: Barring any crazy/breaking news we should address, this will be it for Soundcheck this week. Post-Coachella/Stagecoach, Ben will be taking some time off.

Why do I think earlier this week, when the show announcement was made, Parrotheads from Stanton to San Clemente said all at once: "Well, it's about time!"

Not that Jimmy Buffett ever fails to bring his party back to Irvine -- he's here just about every year. But the wait this season to find out when he'll return seems to have taken a little longer than usual.

Of course, now the wait really begins: Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band won't arrive to play Verizon Wireless Amphitheater until Oct. 21. Tickets go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. Prices aren't up on Ticketmaster as I write this, but I'd anticipate they'd be around $40 for lawn, $140 for orchestra.

Also, I wouldn't expect a second date: the Tuesday show of that week is in Portland, Ore., and the Saturday gig is at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. (As all Parrotheads know, Buffett only plays on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He even used that for the title of his 1999 live album.)

November 8th, 2009, 10:57 am by KEVIN FLINN, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

In the spring of 1997, as a high school senior eagerly awaiting graduation, I was unfortunately without a car. My friend Rick drove a used Chevy Blazer (and therefore me) and owned one CD: the single version of Hanson's “MMMBop,” which he played continuously.

Rick had purchased the disc after hearing the song on the radio, but once it became a No. 1 smash in almost a dozen countries -- and the moppety mugs of Isaac, Taylor and Zac were plastered all over TV -- Rick “lost” the CD, eventually claiming he'd never even owned it.

This backlash was all too common in the late '90s and early '00s, and while it may never be cool to listen to Hanson (or at least cop to listening to Hanson), the three-piece from Tulsa never really went away — the band of brothers is currently putting the finishing touches on its as-yet-unnamed eighth LP (due in 2010) and touring the U.S. behind a mostly-acoustic EP titled Stand Up, Stand Up.

On Saturday, the group's Use Your Sole Tour bopped into L.A. Live's jam-packed Club Nokia (it stops Wednesday at House of Blues Anaheim), and while Rick was noticeably absent, the adoring legion of Hansonites were out in force to support the band that most of them never stopped supporting.

Couldn't catch Brad Paisley or Dierks Bentley when they topped the bill last weekend at Go Fest 2009 in Irvine?

You're in luck: both country stars just announced they're coming right back for more shows.

Paisley has extended his American Saturday Night Tour into the first part of 2010, with Miranda Lambert and Justin Moore replacing Bentley and Jimmy Wayne as opening acts. The next leg will stop Feb. 18 at Staples Center, as well as Feb. 19 at Fresno's SaveMart Arena, Feb. 20 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and Feb. 21 at Reno Events Center. Stay tuned for on-sale info.

Bentley, meanwhile, is giving Go Country 105 fans an encore by headlining the radio station's Winter at the Wiltern program, slated for Dec. 9 at the L.A. theater. Tickets go on sale Saturday, Oct. 10, at 10 a.m. exclusively through LiveNation.com.

Also at the Wiltern and on sale through that site: sterling soul man Raphael Saadiq, Nov. 20, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. ... and a second night from the Sounds, Oct. 22, with Shiny Toy Guns, Destructo and Semi Precious Weapons, on sale today at 4 p.m. (By the way, Moving Units is also on the bill for the band's Oct. 21 show.)